By: Laura Walton AFC® The headline caught my attention. A long-standing cornerstone of the American Dream has been owning a home. Dreams are powerful, but current generations are rethinking this one. The article, by Liz Weston writing for Nerd Wallet, gives two examples. Perhaps you read recently that Warren Buffett’s Laguna Beach home is for sale for…
By: Laura Walton AFC® If you earn and spend money, you pay taxes. Let’s see how they all add up and inject some humor into the subject. Some interesting stats for the 2015 tax year: The IRS received 150.6 million returns 50 million of those returns showed no federal tax liability That meant the average taxpayer…
By: Laura Walton AFC® Spring is early…trees are leafing out, desert flowers are starting what promises to be a record bloom year, allergy sufferers are suffering and bird song, if you’ve noticed, is abundant. On Sunday, we joined friends and a professional birding guide in Madera Canyon. It was an eye-opening experience and, guess what,…
By: Laura Walton AFC® “‘Devaluation’ of homeowner tax advantage feared by some” was the headline in our Sunday paper that caught my attention. Just how important is the mortgage interest deduction and who benefits most from it? According to the article, the National Home Builders Association, Mortgage Bankers Association and the National Association of Realtors are characterizing…
By: Laura Walton AFC® We’re 9 years into this historic bet pitting passive index funds against actively managed hedge funds. Who’s winning? Or, more accurately, by just how much is the index fund trouncing the hedge funds? My blog last March explained the bet: In 2007, Warren Buffett responded to a question about hedge funds (actively managed funds designed…
By: Laura Walton AFC® We’re always trying to think up good ways to drive home our lessons – spend less than you make, invest for the long term and with inflation in mind, watch your costs, and start today. Bob Swift came up with a great analogy… I spoke to a large group of UA students…
By: Laura Walton AFC® Yes, they’re a burden. I talk to very few young adults who don’t carry some student loan debt. But, as with every personal finance decision, the student loan debt experience is very different from one person to the next…and there are some interesting new options available. Maybe you’ve heard “SoFi at…
By: Laura Walton AFC® I had planned to blog about median home prices versus median incomes in the 20 Best Value Towns listed in the February issue of Sunset Magazines (Prescott was ranked #4 by the way) but I got sidetracked into something much more timely. Did you know Tucson ranked #6 out of 20…
By: Laura Walton AFC® Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman says “it’s nonsense to say money doesn’t buy happiness, but people exaggerate the extent to which more money can buy more happiness.” He famously set that tipping point at $75,000 based on 450,000 survey results collected in 2009. He went on to say… “It turns out there is…
By: Laura Walton AFC® Occasionally I hike with friends on Friday mornings. Afterwards, we gather at Starbucks and, even though I’m there infrequently, I’ve come to spot regulars, folks who apparently stop by every Friday morning for their brew. The same thought rolls through my brain each time – how do they afford the time…